RossM
Active Member
Building on my last post, I am continuing to do some work on the Bavarian Jäger bust that I recently started as part of my determination to do some modelling this year. The pictures below illustrate the progress so far.
I undercoated the face using Jo Sonja’s Skin Tone Base. I diluted this with some water, and after a couple of coats, it gave a good base layer for the oil paints that would subsequently be applied. However, the one thing I did notice is that Jo Sonja’s do not thin in the same way as other acrylics such as Vallejo. When you thin Vallejo’s, or similar paints, you find that you get a ‘pool’ of thinned paint. With Jo Sonja’s, the paint stayed quite viscous. It still went on perfectly well and was nice and thin, but it just did not ‘look’ the same as other acrylics that I have used. To be fair, it is recommended that you thin Jo Sonja’s with their flow medium and I suspect this will yield better results than water. I have planned to buy this, but I am on the search for a supplier here in Brisbane.
After I let the base coat dry I started work on the face with my trusted oil paints. While I transitioned to acrylics about ten years ago, I still use oils for faces. I just cannot get the effect I am looking for with acrylics. The base coat was a mix of Titanium White, Jaune Brilliant, Venetian Red and Light Red. This, I find, gives a good flesh colour from which to work. Once I had applied a thin base coat, I got to work building in some volume as this was the key focus of this painting session. I created shadow tones by adding more Venetian Red, Light Red and Burnt Siena in differing proportions. I then applied this to areas such as the temples and cheek areas with the simple purpose of building volume. This process allows me to start to define the face for further sessions. This is where I stopped, and you can see that areas such as shadows around the eyes have not been done and these will be done in subsequent sessions. While the oil paints took around a week to dry, then have done so very well over the acrylic base coat.
The key lessons that came out of this session were that, first, despite having not painted in a while, I do remember how to put paint on a figure! Second, I hate synthetic brushes. When I first moved to Brisbane, and because my modelling tools are in a box in a storage unit, I went and bought some brushes when I purchased the Jo Sonja paints. I bought synthetic brushes thinking that they would be fine and because they were what I could quickly get hold of. However, using them reminded why I do not like them. I find them too ‘springy’ and just not as responsive as an excellent old sable brush. This mistake will be rectified shortly!
Continue reading...
I undercoated the face using Jo Sonja’s Skin Tone Base. I diluted this with some water, and after a couple of coats, it gave a good base layer for the oil paints that would subsequently be applied. However, the one thing I did notice is that Jo Sonja’s do not thin in the same way as other acrylics such as Vallejo. When you thin Vallejo’s, or similar paints, you find that you get a ‘pool’ of thinned paint. With Jo Sonja’s, the paint stayed quite viscous. It still went on perfectly well and was nice and thin, but it just did not ‘look’ the same as other acrylics that I have used. To be fair, it is recommended that you thin Jo Sonja’s with their flow medium and I suspect this will yield better results than water. I have planned to buy this, but I am on the search for a supplier here in Brisbane.
After I let the base coat dry I started work on the face with my trusted oil paints. While I transitioned to acrylics about ten years ago, I still use oils for faces. I just cannot get the effect I am looking for with acrylics. The base coat was a mix of Titanium White, Jaune Brilliant, Venetian Red and Light Red. This, I find, gives a good flesh colour from which to work. Once I had applied a thin base coat, I got to work building in some volume as this was the key focus of this painting session. I created shadow tones by adding more Venetian Red, Light Red and Burnt Siena in differing proportions. I then applied this to areas such as the temples and cheek areas with the simple purpose of building volume. This process allows me to start to define the face for further sessions. This is where I stopped, and you can see that areas such as shadows around the eyes have not been done and these will be done in subsequent sessions. While the oil paints took around a week to dry, then have done so very well over the acrylic base coat.
The key lessons that came out of this session were that, first, despite having not painted in a while, I do remember how to put paint on a figure! Second, I hate synthetic brushes. When I first moved to Brisbane, and because my modelling tools are in a box in a storage unit, I went and bought some brushes when I purchased the Jo Sonja paints. I bought synthetic brushes thinking that they would be fine and because they were what I could quickly get hold of. However, using them reminded why I do not like them. I find them too ‘springy’ and just not as responsive as an excellent old sable brush. This mistake will be rectified shortly!
Continue reading...
